This invention relates to a device for cutting fabric or similar sheet material. More particularly, it relates to a tool for quickly and safely cutting clothing from a person""s body.
There always exists a need to safely and quickly cut and remove clothing or fabric from a person""s body, particularly in emergency room situations where removing articles of clothing needs to be done quickly and safely. Patients with burns, gun shot wounds or those involved in some other trauma injury often require clothing removal in order for doctors and nurses to treat the injured individual.
Currently, the most widely practiced method for removal of clothing is by cutting the article with rounded tip surgical scissors to avoid further injury to the patient. Often an initial cut must be made in the clothing to allow entry of the scissors blade to begin the cutting operation. Both processes are time consuming, and the whole process becomes even more difficult if the patient is moving or having convulsions.
Thus there exists an unmet need for a device which can quickly and safely cut clothing from the body of a person.
The invention is a cutting tool for sheet materials comprising a planar hook-shaped cylindrical member having a longer linear handle section with a longitudinal axis, a semicircular curved transverse section connected coaxially at a first end to one end of the handle section and connected coaxially at a second end to one end of a shorter leg section. The leg section is oriented essentially parallel to the handle section, and extends to a ball point leg section at an end opposite the curved transverse section. A planar blade member is secured to the semicircular curved transverse section and the shorter leg section and positioned coplanar with the hook-shaped cylindrical member. The blade member has a cutting edge positioned in opposition to the cylindrical handle section.